World

Myanmar army’s self-exoneration of atrocities draws rights groups’ scorn

November 14, 2017
Rohingya refugees wait for food aid at Thankhali refugee camp in Bangladesh’s Ukhia district on Tuesday. — AFP
Rohingya refugees wait for food aid at Thankhali refugee camp in Bangladesh’s Ukhia district on Tuesday. — AFP

YANGON — Human rights groups poured scorn on Tuesday on a Myanmar military investigation into alleged atrocities against Rohingya Muslims, branding it a “whitewash” and calling for UN and independent investigators to be allowed into the country.

More than 600,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since late August, driven out by a counterinsurgency clearance operation in Rakhine State that a top UN official has called a classic case of “ethnic cleansing”.

Accusations of organized mass rape and other crimes against humanity were leveled at the Myanmar military on Sunday by another senior UN official, who had toured camps in Bangladesh where Rohingya refugees have taken shelter.

Pramila Patten, the UN special representative of the secretary-general on sexual violence in conflict, said she would raise accusations against the Myanmar military with the International Criminal Court in the Hague.

The military, known as the Tatmadaw, has consistently protested its innocence, and on Monday it posted the findings of an internal investigation on the Facebook page of its commander in chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.

It said it had found no instances where its soldiers had shot and killed Rohingya villagers, raped women or tortured prisoners. It denied that security forces had torched Rohingya villages or used “excessive force”.

The military said that, while 376 “terrorists” were killed, there were no deaths of innocent people.

“The Burmese military’s absurd effort to absolve itself of mass atrocities underscores why an independent international investigation is needed to establish the facts and identify those responsible,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch in a statement.

The military’s self-exoneration came as US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson prepared to visit Myanmar on Wednesday for talks with the country’s leaders.

Tillerson and Aung San Suu Kyi, the head of a less than two-year-old civilian administration that has no control over the military, met in Manila on Monday, where they were both attending a regional summit.

With US senators in Washington pressing to impose economic sanctions and travel restrictions targeting the military and its business interests, Tillerson is expected to deliver a stern message to Myanmar’s generals, while supporting the transition to democracy.

While world leaders wrung their hands, thousands of Rohingya remained stranded in Myanmar, on beaches around the mouth of the Naf river, hoping to find a boat to make the short, sometimes perilous crossing to Bangladesh.

More than 200 have drowned making the attempt in the past couple of months and Bangladesh border guards have clamped down on fishermen who Rohingya were paying to take them across.

With fewer boats available, desperate Rohingya have been stringing together rafts from bamboo and plastic canisters. In the past week, some 1,200 people crossed over on such flimsy rafts, according to police.

“They’re still coming, risking their lives, driven by fears of starvation and violence,” Shariful Azam, a police official in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar, a narrow spit of land where the world’s most urgent humanitarian crisis is unfolding.

The government in mostly Buddhist Myanmar, which is also known as Burma, regards the Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. — Reuters


November 14, 2017
196 views
HIGHLIGHTS
World
32 minutes ago

India opposition leader Kejriwal to remain in jail in corruption case

World
3 hours ago

Baltimore bridge collapse: Divers find two bodies in submerged truck

World
3 hours ago

US urges fair legal process for India opposition leader Arvind Kejriwal